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T-Mobile USA's chief marketing officer, Cole Brodman, calls it quits
Maybe he's finished running with the underdog, or maybe he's just done with the corporate gig altogether, but one thing is certain: as of May 25th, Cole Brodman will mark his exit from T-Mobile. For the past two years, Mr. Brodman has served as the carrier's chief marketing officer, and his departure concludes 17 years with the company. During his tenure, Cole Brodman railed against the subsidized handset game, helped drive the adoption of smartphones and -- sadly -- crushed our dreams for the potential of a Magenta-branded iPhone. He must also claim at least partial responsibility for the carrier's net loss of customers in 2011, with a total of 802,000 subscribers jumping ship in Q4 alone. One thing is certain of Mr. Brodman's exit, however: he seems content with the decision. Likening the move to a retirement, he remarked, "It's an opportunity to step away, get a break and start to think about how I want to do something next." Andrew Sherrard will replace Cole Brodman as T-Mobile's interim chief marketing officer while the company searches for a permanent replacement. So long, Mr. Brodman, and thanks for the smartphones. [Cole Brodman photo via CNET]
Yahoo's Jerry Yang quits the company he co-founded, walks away from Alibaba as well
The long, drawn-out, oftentimes melodramatic saga revolving around Yahoo itself and co-founder Jerry Yang is well-documented. Perhaps too well. Thankfully for us all, that ends today. As of January 17th, he has resigned from Yahoo's Board of Directors and all other positions with the company, and moreover, has resigned from the Boards of Yahoo Japan Corporation and Alibaba Group Holding Limited. We most recently heard from Yang during his interview at AsiaD, where he sounded none too pleased about the going-ons there. We aren't about to draw links of Yang's exit to the hiring of Scott Thompson as CEO (in fact, Yang praises him in his exit blurb), but we are drawing links to his sudden purchase of a yacht, a new sauna and a round-the-round journey courtesy of Abercrombie & Kent. Kidding. In all seriousness, it's no surprise to see Yahoo's stock rallying, as many felt that Yang was the major roadblock holding up an outright sale or other significant shake-up within its ranks. As for Jerry? He's off to "pursue other interests" -- but we didn't need to tell you that, now did we?
Sony quits OLED TV in the consumer market, we quietly shelve hopes for the XEL-2
Hope you're in the mood to pour one out, because the Daily Yomiuri Online has just confirmed that Sony is giving up the OLED TV in its consumer business. According to the report, it has discontinued production of OLED TV sets for the mainstream market, and while it'll continue selling 'em to its corporate clients, it'll concentrate the home-use TV portion on LCD models. For historians in attendance, they'll no doubt (fondly) recall the XEL-1 -- a devilishly thin personal OLED TV that never stood a chance at filling anything other than a luxury niche. The same sect will also remember that it discontinued OLED TV sales domestically back in 2010, but exports to America and Europe continued up until now. The real question? Whether or not those rollable OLEDs are still getting researched in a Sony lab; the futurist in us can only pray so.
ARM's Mali-T658 GPU aims to beat the world in 2013; president Tudor Brown steps down
Here's an ARM duo to digest this fine morning -- ARM's president (and co-founder) Tudor Brown has announced that he'll be retiring in May after serving a bit over a score with the company. His final day will be May 3rd of next year, with Chairman Doug Dunn confessing that Brown had played "an important role in the creation and successful development of ARM over the past 21 years and has made an immense contribution in a wide range of positions." Oddly enough, a company spokesperson has stated that ARM has "no plans at this stage to replace Mr. Brown," though we suspect that could change as the date draws closer. In more product-related news, the company's forthcoming (and by "forthcoming," we mean "perhaps by the end of 2013") Mali-T658 GPU should provide a 10x improvement in performance over the existing Mali-400. According to a slide hosted up over at AnandTech, it'll offer double the shader cores per GPU, twice the arithmetic pipes per shader core and "extensive" API support. For those unaware, the Mali-400 MP4 is a real barnburner for the Android platform, and given that the T658 can scale to eight cores, we're guessing you may have just made your mind up about timing on your next smartphone purchase. Hit the links below to dig in deeper, but remember -- 2013 is about an eternity from now. Depressing, we know.
Dean Kamen wrestles with decision: should he quit the Segway?
It's something that any hard-nosed entrepreneur likely deals with when their invention / startup is on the edge of fail: should they simply throw in the towel, or forge ahead like no one's looking? The father of the Segway, Dean Kamen, is also wrestling with that question. In a recent interview, he stated: "You end up lying there saying, 'I'm not stopping. It would be an act of shallow cowardice. Or you decide to quit and you say, 'This is one of those ideas that just isn't going to work.' " He also noted that "it's not nearly as glamorous as people think to keep working on something and to keep hitting roadblocks and to keep going." On one hand, we could definitely see the rug being pulled from the two-wheeled transporter that never revolutionized public movement, but considering all the days in which it has lifted our spirits, do we really want it to?[Image courtesy of SimplyMoving]
Netscape finally bows out, browsers no longer supported
Although Netscape was once a mighty pioneer in the world of internet browsers, it didn't take long for Microsoft's Internet Explorer to overtake it and squash its dreams of market dominance. Granted, we highly (and we stress "highly") doubt any viewers reading this now are relying on Netscape Navigator as their primary browser, but seeing it finally bow out is a bit surreal. According to a post on the Netscape Blog, support (and subsequent updates) for it will no longer be provided by AOL (disclosure: AOL is our parent company's parent) after February 1, 2008. Sure, old versions will still be available for those who just hate to move on, but the team is suggesting that any remaining Netscape users (a show of hands, anyone?) make the leap to Firefox, and they even point you in the direction of a Netscape theme should you find yourself uncomfortable with change. Rest in peace, dear Netscape -- it's about time that last heap of dirt was finally flung.[Via BlogRunner]
AMD's chief sales and marketing officer resigns
According to an article recently put out by The Wall Street Journal, Advanced Micro Devices' chief sales and marketing officer Henri Richard is stepping down. Reportedly, AMD's top sales exec "decided to leave AMD because of another job opportunity," although we aren't told where exactly he'll be heading. The firm is supposedly planning to "formally announce Mr. Richard's resignation" soon, but attempts to contact the chip maker for comment were apparently in vain.[Via Hexus, thanks Arneh]
Philips not yet phasing out plasmas, focusing on LCD TVs
While we're sure quite a few of you are taking the day off to enjoy the first few days of March Madness in HD on your beautiful Philips plasma display, we certainly hope you weren't planning on eventually replacing it with yet another Philips. Turns out that Rudy Provoost, CEO of Philips Consumer Electronics, has reportedly announced that the outfit will "phase out of the PDP market and focus on LCD TVs in the future." Interestingly, it sounds like the presumably lucrative (or not) North American / Australian markets will still have the opportunity to purchase its plasmas for an undisclosed amount of time to come, while the rest of the world (including China later this year) will be forced to look elsewhere to satisfy their PDP needs. Of course, this isn't the first time a major player has dropped out of the plasma game entirely, but ranking fourth worldwide with just a ten-percent market share apparently wasn't enough for Philips to hang on any longer. So, Sony, you still looking to scratch the re-entry itch?[Thanks, Jason M.]Update: Philips wanted to let us know that Plasma is still on their plate for 2007: "Incorrectly reported comments on a Russian news website have suggested that Philips is pulling out of the PDP (Plasma Display Panel) FlatTV market. For the foreseeable future, Philips will continue to include gas plasma-based sets in its overall product mix of FlatTVs sold around the world. Since Philips introduced the world's first plasma-based FlatTV over 10 years ago, it has consistently applied the best display technologies available to meet consumer needs, using both plasma and LCD panels to manage the product mix in the most optimum way. However, it is widely acknowledged that over time LCD will become the dominant flat panel TV technology, serving all screen sizes currently addressed by both LCD and PDP solutions, and this will inevitably shape Philips' product strategy in this market segment."
